I'm an antique shop owner, so it's reasonable for me to know some magic

Chapter 385: Murder and arson, professional and reliable
In this cold, silent, damp and dark space, the presence of golden light is so abrupt.

It was so tiny, insignificant compared to the surrounding darkness.

But the moment he saw it, James seemed to have the courage to live again.

He rushed out of the room without looking back, passing through the underground passage full of pipes, and ran forward without paying attention to the cultists chasing him from the church.

A familiar shout came from the side.

Those were the voices of "wife" and "son".

Women and children called out his name, hoping he would stay.

However, James did not stop.

He didn't know where he was going.

Even though he was born into original sin and his past was nothing, he still wanted to live.

James suddenly opened his eyes and found that he was still in the ward.

Amanda's hopeful eyes turned into surprise after she woke up, and then into anger and disbelief.

"You rejected Sorato? How is that possible?!"

"Your mental strength is so weak, how can you still maintain your self?!"

The girl showed a different face, and the look of whispering to James just now was gone.

Of course.

From the beginning to the end, Amanda regarded James as the embodiment of her own beliefs, and her tenderness was also given to Kongren.

But now that James had disobeyed their arrangement and refused to be a container, there was no need to continue talking to him in a friendly manner.

"The purpose of your birth is to become a container. There is no other way to choose!"

"If you are unwilling to accept destiny, we will have no choice but to use coercive means."

"What a shame, James. I wanted to make your last moments less painful."

She walked towards James, who had not yet fully recovered his ability to move, and reached out to cover his eyes.

"Even if the memories disappear, the remaining emotions are enough."

"Go to sleep."

Before Amanda finished her words, her arm seemed to be pulled by something and pressed uncontrollably against the wall.

Looking at the back of my palm, I could see that it had been pierced by a scalpel without me noticing.

The contrast between the bright red blood and the white palm is so glaring.

It turned out that it wasn't something pulling her arm, but the scalpel nailed her palm directly to the wall!

Amanda's facial features were twisted in extreme pain, but she did not wail. Instead, she looked behind her first.

A figure appeared at the door. He looked very young, with black hair and outstanding appearance.

He was leaning against the door frame of the ward, playing with a scalpel in his other hand.

The sharp knife that can easily cut through flesh dances between its slender fingers like a silver butterfly.

"who are you?"

"It doesn't matter who I am, but do you have anything else to say?"

The young man seemed to have no inclination to answer Amanda's questions.

He spoke casually, as if what he was talking about was just a trivial matter.

Amanda was stunned when she heard this, but she quickly regained her composure.

He raised his hand to try to pull the scalpel out, but failed in the end, so he let the scalpel pass through completely and pulled his palm out.

The wound that was already bleeding widened due to this action, and small streams of blood flowed from the fingertips to the ground.

Amanda didn't care. She just looked at Su Fan and smiled.

"Are you going to take my life? If you want, just take it."

“By leaving the false reality, my consciousness will merge into the circle of wisdom, where I will have a direct dialogue with the most primitive and profound truth.”

"Kill me, and the others in the church will continue to complete my work."

"The great gods that have existed since ancient times will continue to attract believers."

Amanda turned her head and looked at James on the ground.

"They will come to look for you one after another. From now on, peace and stability will become a dream that you will never be able to realize."

"But I really don't understand why you would shamelessly want to continue to stay in this world when the meaning of your existence has completely disappeared."

“Do people need meaning in life?”

Su Fan curled the corners of his mouth, as if he had heard some kind of joke.

Do you need a reason to love someone? No.

Do you need a reason to live? Not at all.

“Humans are different from other animals in that they can think, know how to self-examine, have rich emotions, and are spiritually gifted.

But humans are also animals after all, and survival is the instinct of all animals.

James wants to live, what's the problem?"

"You said yourself that everything that happened in the past was just a script written by you. This also means that all the grudges in this world have nothing to do with him."

"No one died because of him, and there is no situation where he failed his brothers in the police department."

"He even did a few good things because of the 'policeman' identity you arranged for him."

"The bad past has vanished, and an unknown future is waiting for him to explore. Is there anything more wonderful than this?"

On the ground, James listened to Su Fan's words, and his dead heart gradually came alive.

"As for destiny, it doesn't exist at all. People always hope that their children can do this or that..."

"But whether or not to meet the expectations of the parents ultimately depends on the child himself."

"Don't say anything incomprehensible there."

"You are just disappointed that this person did not do what you thought, collapse his mind and seek death. What's the point of loving or not loving someone?"

When Su Fan said this, his expression suddenly became playful.

"Or do you just feel that you can't accept the fact that the child you created had a relationship with your own mother?"

"I forgot to tell you that I have dealt with all the believers surrounding the hospital not far away."

"The same is true for the church. So the great cause you mentioned of bringing down that empty man, I'm afraid there will be no one to carry it on."

Amanda, who was originally smiling, suddenly became frosty, and then her face suddenly became hideous and terrifying like a ghost.

She lost her composure, and her not-yet-fully-grown body burst out at an astonishing speed as she pounced on the other person.

"You deserve to die! Damn it! No, death cannot atone for your sins. You should be sent to the abyss of chaos filled with eternal darkness, pain and wailing, and suffer torture for eternity!"

The scalpel that Su Fan was originally playing with in his hand suddenly accelerated in its flipping speed, almost turning into a silver arc of light.

But he didn't let it go after all.

But even if Su Fan didn't make any movement, Amanda's body still lay uncontrollably on the ground, unable to get up, as if there was a tremendous force pressing down on her.

"what have you done?"

James on one side recovered some language function, but was unable to understand what was happening before his eyes.

"It's simple. I overwhelmed her with my aura."

Su Fan did not lie.

His current strength has improved a bit compared to before. When dealing with ordinary people, he only needs to release a little bit of his aura to overwhelm them.

Overwhelm on a physical level.

Facing Su Fan's oppression, Amanda couldn't even curse like before. It was as if every cell in her body was being squeezed.

"What are you going to do with her?"

James' brain regained its ability to think and began to figure out Su Fan's words.

The young man in front of him probably sensed the complicated feelings he had towards Amanda, so he did not kill her outright like he did with other church members.

Not only supernatural phenomena, but also human hearts can be seen clearly.

It's really amazing.

"Has her hands ever been stained with the blood of innocent people?"

James asked.

"Killing people? No, not directly."

Does that mean that indirect killing has become the norm?
James recalled the bodies of the people hanged at the bottom of the bridge, swaying in the wind, and felt even more sad.

He looked at Amanda on the ground.

Even though he knew that the latter was a high-ranking official of the evil church and had killed many innocent people, James had no way of asking the black-haired young man in front of him to execute him.

"Let her confess everything she has done, word for word, and then accept the judgment of society and the law..."

James' voice was hoarse, like two pieces of sandpaper rubbing against each other.

He had never realized that the act of speaking could be so difficult.

After saying this, the man seemed to have all his strength drained away. He collapsed to the ground, staring blankly at the ceiling.

After a moment, he reached into his jacket pocket, pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and took a deep puff.

After Su Fan knocked Amanda unconscious, he looked at the man lying on the ground smoking.

At least at this moment, he is the James who truly exists in this world.

"Will this make me look like a sissy?"

James suddenly asked, his tone tired.

He felt very tired, so tired that nothing else mattered to him.

A young man who can single-handedly wipe out a cult organization and whose clothes are not dirty should be treated with utmost respect and care.

But James no longer has the energy to consider his words.

"Kind of."

Su Fan did not deny it and nodded slightly, not giving the other party any face at all.

"You should know that she is not very old, and the judge in charge of sentencing may have the discretion to reduce the sentence. The punishment applicable to her is either the death penalty or spending the rest of her life in prison, never seeing the light of day."

James exhaled the smoke and blew the ash away.

"The Minor Protection Act is not effective against supernatural events."

Su Fan turned his head, waiting for the other party to continue explaining.

"Since America has proven the existence of supernatural phenomena, Britain has now begun to draft a set of laws specifically targeting supernatural crimes."

"Although it may take some time, the final result should be that he will be detained until the law is implemented and then the trial will be held."

"Should I say you are indeed a former police officer?"

Hearing Su Fan's words, James on the ground smiled bitterly.

"I'm a little confused as to why you rescued me."

"What do you think of this reason?"

"Come on."

James struggled to move himself to the side and sat up against the wall.

"Believe it or not, but it's totally coincidental that I'm here to help you sort things out."

"Tom found out about the association you were investigating, and then discovered the secrets behind it, and finally passed it on to me."

Su Fan’s words stunned James.

The image of the young man who spoke irrelevantly and was a little off the track emerged in his mind.

Unexpectedly, the latter really wrote down what he said and even went to find the young man in front of him for this purpose.

This genuine kindness made James' eyes a little hot, and he took two deep puffs of his cigarette before he calmed down.

"Where are the medical staff here?"

"I killed them. Everyone in this hospital is a member of the church. Their minds are infected with the Hollow Man virus. There is no hope for them."

"What about the church?"

“I came from church.”

"...Not even one was left?"

"Ah."

It’s not that Su Fan didn’t give the cultists a chance, but even when they saw their companions dying, they refused to leave. They just stood there or charged towards Su Fan.

The biggest problem is not that their minds are bewitched, but that their souls are also polluted.

After the physical bodies were destroyed, Su Fan clearly saw the souls that had left the bodies, emitting bursts of gray mist, and even having bony limb growths on their surfaces, looking like madmen.

Neither heaven nor hell will allow them entry.

Seeing this, Su Fan raised his hand and killed these souls with thunder.

James carefully observed Su Fan's expression, and when he saw that he didn't seem to be lying, his face finally changed.

The believers he saw in the church alone were enough to fill up an entire classroom. If some senior members were included, there would probably be hundreds of them.

Just thinking about it, he seemed to see the tragic scene before his eyes.

But none of this matters, the most important thing is...

"What if the police investigate you?"

"It doesn't matter. I already burned the place down."

"Then you also want this hospital..."

"That's not the case."

Su Fan raised his hand, and a ball of fire emerged from his palm.

James saw him wave his hand and the flames fell on the man on the bed not far away.

He knew that the other party was the carrier of the empty man, and he also understood that death was a relief for him.

I just didn't expect this process to be so quick.

The latter turned into black ash in an instant right under James' eyes, and there was even no time for it to emit a burnt smell.

The bed below was undamaged.

If you didn't see it with your own eyes, who would believe that this pool of black ash was the body of an adult man just a second ago.

"Just deal with the body like this."

In addition to believers, the church also has some textbooks that spread ideas, records of many inhuman experiments, books that record the ritual of summoning empty people, and so on...

It was too tedious to clean up these things one by one, but fortunately I threw a handful of Dan fire and burned them all.

But James was not aware of the twists and turns involved. He just felt that the young man in front of him killed people, set fires and ran away, and the process was too smooth.

For a moment, I started to sweat profusely.

He suddenly became confused as to whether it was a good thing or a bad thing that he was rescued by the young man.

(End of this chapter)